Contending Political Parties Vow to Bring Youth to Leadership Positions

Addis Ababa January 14/2019 Contending political parties revealed that they have been exerting efforts to bring the youth to the forefront in order to engage them in high level decision-making and leadership positions.

The
contending political parties, two national and one regional, are Ethiopian
Federal Democratic Unity Forum (Medrek) and Ethiopian National Movement as well
as Arena Tigray Party.

In
an exclusive interview with ENA, Medrek Chairman Million Tumato said his party
is working hard to encourage the youth to actively take part in the leadership
of the party.

Nurturing
the youth to participate directly in strategizing and meeting the political
goal of the party and leading the party is crucial, he noted.

Subsequent
to the efforts Medrek has been making in this respect, a certain level of
achievement has been registered, according to the chairman.

Million
said, “The percentage of youth and women leaders in the party has reached 20
percent. There is of course serious effort to increase the leadership of the
youth since almost 70 percent of the population of Ethiopia is youth.”

According
to him, democracy and development are unthinkable without the involvement of
the youth and women at high level.

The
political wing of the youth in the party is created to develop the political
leadership and participation of the youth in particular, he pointed out.

Ethiopian
National Movement Chairman, Yilkal Getnet said consolidating the involvement of
the youth in leadership helps the youth to contribute creatively and utilize
their talent in building democracy.

The
youth should, therefore, be encouraged to take leadership positions in
political parties and contribute creatively to the process of building the
parties and democracy at large, he stated.

“In our party we are mainly working to bring the youth and women to
leadership positions. We have an internal regulation which focuses on bringing
the youth and talented individuals to leadership,” Yilkal added.

He
believes that the youth are farsighted and have special talent to achieve their
dreams and translate their ideas into reality.

According
to Yilkal, creating opportunities for the youth to take part in the political
and decision-making processes is very crucial for countries like Ethiopia which
aspire to build strong and democratic country.

Arena
Tigray Party Chairman, Abraha Desta said young politicians are getting the
chance to get involved in high level political decision of the party.

Although
the regional party Arena Tigray was established by senior politicians, the
leadership is now transferred to the youth, he added.

Abraha
said, “We believe that the youth should lead with new political thinking because
the political thinking of the 1960s cannot bring democracy and unity. Rather it
sows seeds of skepticism, distrust and animosity between political parties. We
must bring new political thinking that suits the youth.”